RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND MOBILITY

The vast majority of Americans identify with a particular
religion, practice their faith to some degree and hold strong
spiritual beliefs. Although the U.S. Census Bureau does not ask
questions about religious affiliation (it's considered a violation
of the Constitution), a number of private and academic polling
sources do track religious identification. Their counts indicate
significant movement across faiths, as people's religious
identities shift and our definitions of religious affiliation,
particularly among minority faiths, are in flux.

The U.S. remains a predominantly Christian country. According to
the Barna Research Group, 40 percent of Americans say they are
evangelical Christians, while 39 percent say they are born again.
The Barna group also found that about half of Americans say they
are â€œtheologically conservative,â€? and 21 percent say
they are â€œcharismatic or Pentecostal.â€? A recent study
by the Glenmary Research Center, Religious Congregations and
Membership: 2000, found that the fastest-growing church
denominations in America are conservative Christian churches, with
the Mormon church, the Christian churches, the Churches of Christ
and the Pentecostal Assemblies of God each growing 19 percent since
1990. Losing the most members were Presbyterian churches and the
United Church of Christ, which declined by 12 percent and 15
percent, respectively, since 1990.

But the face of religion in America is changing, due to
immigration, waning and waxing denominations and increasing
diversity. People are identifying less strongly with a particular
religion, and fewer identify themselves as Christian. According to
the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, conducted by the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 1990, 90
percent of the population identified with a particular religion. By
2001, only 81 percent did so. In 1990, 86 percent of the country
identified with a Christian religion; 77 percent did so by
2001.